EP. 151 - Sarah Hoffman

the Symmetric Tour named Sarah Hoffman. And Sarah is a nurse some of the year and a golfer some of the year, and she bounces back and forth between both jobs. And she went back to the hospital once all of this became obviously a huge thing. Sarah went back to the hospital that she has worked at in the winters when golf is on hiatus and said, I'll help out any way possible. And I had a chance to chat with here for a good amount of time, about half

an hour. We talked about the decision to go back and what it was like, and the golf game and where it is at this current state, and how little golf she's been able to play and the plans for the rest of the year. It was a great conversation, and this is something that I'm gonna keep doing over

the next few weeks. Is I'm gonna talk to some people in and around the golf community that have done something different, as that guy said above and beyond to help out any and always possible, And I just figured it would be a way for you to maybe know a little bit more about people that are doing these things. That is the hope to all you out there. I hope you're being safe. I hope you're being smart. I hope you're staying healthy. I hope you were being positive.

That is also a big part of this, trying to stay positive through all this. I know a lot of states are opening up golf. More and more states are doing that. Just again, be smart when you do that. Golf is a great way to go out and do something. Arizona has allowed golf basically this entire time. I don't think there was day golf was shut down in the state I live in. But we've you know, just I bring my own water bottles and I wet my towel

before I go to the golf course. Now I've got to obviously rewat it a couple of times because it's like a hundred and thirty degrees in Arizona right now. But you know, I bring hand sanitizer. I attached it on my golf bag, and I'm just trying to do little things that I know would cause me to touch stuff that I don't want to touch when I'm on the golf course. So just try to think. Think of all the stuff you touch when you're on a golf course.

If you have an old golf glove, like an old nasty glove that you want to throw away, use that one. If you've got to pick up, you know, range range ball buckets, or if you've got to use it to punch in a code to get your range balls. Little things like that always helpful, just easy ways to avoid touching stuff. As we continue to go through this, let's let's get to Sarah. I want to I want you all to hear her story, and we welcome into the

clubhouse somebody. I'm I'm excited to chat with Sarah Hoffman, a professional golfer on the Semmetra Tour. But that it's not why we're going to chat Sarah. I want to chat about some other things. But before we get to those things, I wanted you too. You know, we've got golf people listening and people that know a lot about the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour. Can you just explain to people a what the semetritory is and how

long you've been out there in your career through professional golf. Yeah, awesome,

thanks for having me, Shane. Um. So, the Smutra Tour is the developmental tour for the LPGA, So it works like the Corn Farry Tour whereat the end of the year, there's UM ten cards that are up for grabs, so the top ten on the money list every year go directly to the LPGA and then um based on how you finish on the money list, you can go to certain levels of Q School and try and earn your way out of the LPGA through that way as well. And how long have you been playing, you know, bouncing

on the semmeritore. I know you've played some LPGA as well. Know you've played some Q school as well. How long have you been out on the Semetric Tour. So I've been trying on the Semetric Tour since two thousand sixteen. In two sixteen, I got partial status for the seventeen season and I played four events, and then last year, two thousand nineteen was my first full year on Sumetra.

And this is why I had you on, not because I don't want to talk about your golf game, because I would like to talk about your actual golf game. But we are going through unprecedented times. Everybody listening knows that obviously, with COVID and and self isolation and quarantining,

it is a weird time in society and civilization. And Sarah, you have done something that I think everybody will be massively impressed with, something that I feel like a lot of people a can't do and maybe wouldn't do, is you put the golf clubs away. Obviously, Symmetric Tour is on hiatus now, as every professional sport is. But you're someone that as a nursing degree and you've gone back

to help out. And I just wanted to start with the decision there because I know you spent a lot of the off season at at a at a hospital. You said, it looks like you spend basically October to January at a hospital, and then you get back into golf. The decision personally for you to get back into a hospital and try to help out. Yeah, so the decision to go back to the hospital was a little bit

limited on information. We knew. We had played the first event on so much with part and then our California swing got canceled, and so I was just waiting for an update to figure out when we were supposed to

resume season UM. I was in Atlanta at the time and trying to get a travel contract, which means anywhere from Usually it's a third team week contract UM, but due to the pandemic, they for offering shorter contracts from four to eight weeks, and so I was trying to figure out what contract I could sign that wouldn't I wouldn't interfere with my ability to play as many tournaments as I could on Sumetra, especially if we're going to

have a limited season with limited events. I knew I couldn't necessarily afford to give up an event or to to UM to the field where they could be making money and and I couldn't, So I was waiting for an update. Once we got an update, I tried to get a travel nursing job in Atlanta, but I've never worked as a travel nurse, so that position didn't come. But um, you know, I had this temp job at Michigan Medicine, and Michigan was one of the hotbeds. Um is one of the hotbeds, and so I, uh, it

was a tough decision. I think it's hard when there's any amount of uncertainty that um, it's it's kind of easy to go to the worst case scenario in your head. So when I would think about the worst case scenario and potentially developing COVID nineteen myself or passing it on my as if I were to stay with my parents,

then I would be absolutely terrified. But that um, when I started to think about how much the community with carping up, and how people were donating ppe so personal protective equipment such as maths, and people were even making maths for health care workers, and how so many people were willing to work at home to help spread or

to help stop the spread of COVID nineteen. Um, I knew that if I looked back when this all was over and I just took the time to only work on my golf game and and sit on the couch when I had the skills necessary to go back to the hospital and help my co workers on the front line, that I would regret not doing everything everything in my

power to help you. Talk about worst case scenario. I feel like we as humans, we especially as Americans, tend to and and golfers for matter, I mean golfers, we look at a hole and go, there's water left and out of bounds. Right, you know, this is brutal out by I hope I just keep it on the planet. How has it been for you in terms of what you thought maybe worst case scenario and what it has been like for you in the hospital day to day. Yeah.

So when I made the decision, we were we were in the peak UM and so Michigan Medicine had two patients I think was their their peak um, which meant there were in the sick U, which is a surgical I SU. There were um two patients per room where

normally there's only one patient. And they had opened up a rick you, which was a special special i SU for COVID positive patients, and they had opened one unit and then they had to end up opening a second second unit, and so it was starting to get um, starting to get to that worst case scenario that are we going to have enough ventilator's situation and UM luck the Michigan's governor H. Gretchen Whitmer put in some pretty strict stay at home orders and UM fortunately for the hospital, UM,

Michigan residents were UM following those orders and their efforts made a direct IMPACTUM on the front line. So by the time I got got to Michigan and started working at the end of April, we were already seeing UH decline in the amount of cases. So in the beginning, UM my my floor had UH positive COVID patients and UM fortunately by the time I got there, so far, we haven't had any COVID positive patients on on my unit. You know, I was reading a little bit about you

on the Semmetric to our website. I was reading about your collegiate schedule with your nursing degree and also playing, and I mean, you had an unbelievable collegiate career, three time Women's Golf Association Division to All American at Grand Valley State University. I mean, you're you're you're a great collegiate player. But there were there were days when you were in school and you'd be in class from nine

am to nine pm. You credit your coach with changing your scheduling, and I've already mentioned your work schedule now where you go in from October to January. Do you consider yourself a golfer that's also a nurse or you a nurse that's also a golfer. That's a good question. I don't know if I've ever thought about it. Um. I think when I'm golfing, I'm a golfer that's also a nurse. And I think when I'm nursing, I'm a

nurse that also happens to be a golfer. Yeah, I mean it just as as I kind of read through bios and stories on you, and and and current stories about you making this decision to go back to the hospital, you know, it really does paint this picture of this person that has always balanced these two things. And you know, I don't I don't think a lot of people understand the life that a symmetric tour player is choosing. I mean,

we read about corn corn Ferry a lot. You know, I'll occasionally see a mini tour story pop up here and there. But you are both trying to make money as a golfer, and you also have a job, as you call it, on the side that helps pay the bills. And I mean this is a job in a hospital helping people. So it's not like you know, you're working at a circle k or you're driving an uber. I mean, you're doing unbelievable work when you're not on the golf course.

And I think that's what seems to be so impressive. Are there other people like you out on tour that are doing this full time in two different landscapes. I know a lot of girls have part time job at the off season. I don't know of anyone that has like a full time position like this. No. Yeah, I mean it's just that that has been the thing that that has seemed so impressive. And and something else is is you talk a little bit about, you know, feeling

like this was something you had to do. You said everyone and realize we had to come together as a strong, united front to provide the best possible care for all. You talk a lot about the difference really in the way you approach golf versus the way you approached nursing. You talk about golf being so individual and how the mindset is yours and years alone, and then you get to a hospital and you've got to do it as a team, and you've got to lean on others. I'm

assuming right now that's probably never been more true. Is you're having to lean on other people to make sure everybody does what they're supposed to do. And really that kind of bleeds out into the community, right, I mean, if people aren't staying home and following orders, that's going to affect other people. Yeah, I mean this is a

team effort for sure. And uh again, I think nurses and doctors get a lot of credit in the media, but um, I mean there are so many other people in the community that are doing their part that because of their job, are inherently taking taking fire risks of

potentially contracting COVID Night Team themselves. But I mean in the hospital, we have the nutritional services that are delivering patient meals, and we have ebs that are environmental services that are cleaning all the rooms, and we have people dropping off equipment for the units, and we have our clerks and our managers and supervisors and educators and respiratory therapists and physical therapists and occupational therapists, and I think

it's um, it's awesome and I've appreciated all the words of support. UM, but I think you know, and then people in the community that people delivering packages and groceries, store clerks and gas station attendants and UM, I just it's a team effort to achieve the best outcome. Yeah,

what is what has morale been like? You know, we've read stories of certain hot spots where you know, hospital workers are are exhausted, they're working these crazy long hours, they're working in their day easy bleed into other days. What has morale been like a Michigan medicine for you and your group of people? And what is how has that been different than when you normally work obviously without the pandemic. Yeah, so without the pandemic. We UM are

an orthopedic trauma unit, which means UM. Usually we we see a lot of elective surgeries, a lot of elective hit surgery, near knee replacements, shoulders, ankles, you know, you name it. UM. A lot of those ortho surgeries are elective. So UM, with this pandemic going on, all those elective surgeries have been canceled. UM. So we're seeing a patient population that's very different from what we're used to. So

my unit is UM stepping up as a whole. Are educators are sending us emails daily to update us on the new patient population. But it's UM. It has to be a team effort when you're taking care of patients that you're not normally used to seeing as much. It's UM. The thing about nursing is you have this base knowledge that allows you to take care of a wide range of patients UM. And the thing about nursing is you have to be willing to ask questions when you're on

share of something. And so we're using each other as resources and using our management UM as resources and just doing doing the best we can. And we've just kind of settled into into this new normal of wearing masks for thirteen hours a day and being different patient populations than UM. It's a it's a time where we feel like we're even more important in our patients lives because UM.

The patients that we're seeing, you know, because they weren't elective surgeries, they've been emergency, emergency situations where these patients would love to have their their support system there, their loved one there. And due to COVID nineteen, visitors are no longer allowed at the hospital except for extreme exceptions, and so they're facing this unknown time, an emergency situation without their loved ones as well. So we're really trying to step up and be there, be there for a

patient as well. We're gonna take a quick break and be right back. Yeah, this is unfamiliar territory. I mean it is for everyone. You're a person that goes through schooling to learn, as you said, about everything, I mean, you've got to know things about everything so you can be helpful in all scenarios. Are you reading at night? Are you are you having to take a break? You

know what? What is what is protocol for a nurse during this to feel like you're educated enough to have in certain scenarios because it's something that nobody knew much about four months ago. Yeah, for sure, I definitely read as much as I can um and our educator has been great about sending daily emails and helpful tips and

and things like that. But also it's just the team I work with at Michigan Medicine is so great, and the doctors have been understanding that we're not necessarily working with patients that were used to and they've also helped to educate us about what is normal? What is abnormal?

When the page when did not be concerned? And um, I think everyone's just learning, learning how to be a little bit more flexible and maybe give each other a little bit more grace, um, in order to make sure that we're all doing what we need to be doing for the best outcomes for our patients. Alright, golf question, when's the last time you touched the golf club? Actually this morning, so yeah, I got to play nine holes this morning. Um. Michigan reopened um golf courses, So I

had the since the second week of March. I hadn't touched a club until Saturday. Um. Yeah, how was the game? How was the game on Saturday? The game on Saturday was a little bit of almost like beginner's luck. And then today the harsh reality that golf is a tough game kind of slapped me in the face. Yeah, yeah, you know, I was. I was. I was talking to a good friend of mine that works with us at Fox who lives in California, and their golf courses have

been closed for six weeks. They just opened up last week, and I told him, I said, You're gonna go out today and shoot even par one under and then the next round you're gonna shoot eighty five because the first round it always like where do you put your hands? And how do you grip this? And it all feels so it feels like a new game and you're just trying to go through the motions. And then the second round is the one where all the bad thoughts get back in your head. Oh, that couldn't be Yeah, that

couldn't be closer to the truth. So what is it? What is your plan for the rest of the year in terms of play? I mean you do you have a do you have a set date? Is semestric to returning? What are your plans in terms of your golf No, Obviously the situation is dynamic and kind of always strangers. So we had originally got an email that we're going to start a mid June and Harris Michigan. We just recently received another update that July, I believe it's fix

speak of July. UM in Cincinnati is our our target start date UM, and so my goal or my plan is to work in the hospital for another month, month and a half and then UM quarantine for two weeks and then be able to UM start practicing for a couple of weeks before or before season starts. I think it's gonna be interesting because normally I like to play three weeks in a row, maybe four weeks in a row,

and take a break. But with a short season, I think we're gonna have close to potentially thirteen weeks in a row. So I'm not so young as one up there, So I gotta start ramping up my workout routine so I can keep up with everybody. Call Rory and see if he'll send you as peloton. I mean, that is unbelievable. Thirteen straight weeks is unheard of. I mean, that's gonna be uh, that is gonna be some serious leaning on the I gotta get nine or ten hours of sleep

every night type of thing. What is what is it like? No, you know, a veteran in the Semetric Tour, You've done it, You've done it for a number of years. What is the Symmetric Tour like? Does it feel very European tory? When when I say that, I mean camaraderie, you guys staying together, host housing. What is the Symmetric Tour feel in terms of the players and participants week to week?

It's just feels like a grind. It feels like, Uh, it's like the question of do I want to get Subway because it's cheap for dinner, or do I want to go get something that I know is gonna like really nourish my body to be able to perform well. It's this question of like, finances are always always on the mind, and it's leaning heavily. Last year, I played twenty events. I stayed in host housing for eighteen of those twenty events. UM. I used a volunteer caddy. I

never paid for a caddy last season. UM. I definitely am following on a budget, as they say. And I think that's gonna be the tough part when we get back because there's been talks of not having caddies to limit you know, community exposure, and there believe there won't be any host housing for this year, so that's gonna increase expenses and UM, so that's gonna be a tough challenge. But yeah, I think the semetric tour um, because everyone

is in this sort of struggle together. UM, there is a sense of commodity and it's um, it really felt like a first day back at school for our first event. UM to kick off the season and it was so good to see everybody and to catch up and um, you know, I was excited to get the ball rolling. And then unfortunately, uh we had this second off season here, so um, it'll be it'll be good to get back.

And UM, I'm we're fortunate, you know, in we played for the most amount of money that that the Cemetri has ever played for before Mike Nichols, and like one, I've done a great job of stepping up and increase our average purse sizes to make it to make it more affordable and to make us playing for more money every week. And I just I don't know how the how the women did it before before they stepped up

to the play and started raising more money for us. Sarah, listen, I can't promise a lot of stuff here, but I will promise you this. If you've got to play thirteen straight weeks and they don't allow you a caddy, I will find some push card company to send you a free push card. I I don't, like I said, I don't know. I don't have a lot of pool here in this world, but I think I can maybe make

that happen with what you've done. In your community and for people, and your selflessness and your commitment to giving back. I think we can probably find a click gear company to send you some some sort because if you're hoping your bag for thirteen weeks, I mean, this is like a golf iron man or something. I know. I'm I'm gonna hold you to that, gonna need that, and maybe like a water bottle or something. I don't, I don't know.

We can work this. We can, we can note this lean and YETI let's get you the best water bottle possible. These are gonna be the gifts you get. You're coming on the podcast dot you were, you know, you're discussing your schedule in volunteer attis I just have to ask, I'm assuming you have an unbelievable volunteer caddy story. I don't want you to put throw anybody under the bus, but if you want to just not use names or tournaments and just give us your best volunteer caddy story,

I'm sure people would love to hear it. Oh my goodness, there are so many um these people are golfers, I'm assuming, right, I mean, you're getting you're getting at least local caddies or club caddies or or golfers in some regard. I mean, you know, you're you're getting caddies that that at least know what's going on. I mean, sometimes it's not always

I was. I've been I've been very fortunate with all of my caddies, with all my volunteer caddies, that they just really want to be there for me and help me out. And I appreciate it. Um. One, you know, listeners at home. One of the one of the horror stories luckily didn't happen to me, but happened to someone

I was playing with. And I'm not going to name names, but someone was hitting the ball amazingly well and I think was three under with maybe six or seven holes to go and ended up three putting her last five holes, Um, five out six or five out seven holes or whatever it was, Uh, to finish a couple over and um. The next day she told her caddie, Hey, I'm on the putting green when you get here, just you know, so he could help, he could find her a little bit easier. And uh, he goes, oh good, I hope

you were there all night last night. And then Dard hanging around. Uh, she hits one close and you know, we're saying nice, nice pot or whatever or a night and shot, and he looks at me like, do you think I can let her put with her driver? And I was like yeah, And it was just kind of some comments like that, and and she made a birdie and he's like, oh finally, and I you know, I kind of helped myself. I was like, I would like to see you do better, and unportantly for him, unfortunately

for him, he did. He she made the cut and he didn't make the cut, so she she she carried her back for the last day. But that was that's definitely an exception to the rule. For the most part, everyone's just trying to help us out and they want to do whatever whatever is best for us. You know what what I envision in my head, Sarah about a volunteer caddy is as I've been to events and seeing the volunteers and how excited they are about their job.

Is I bet at times it's just about scaling them back. You know, Hey, man, I got this. I actually I got the read. I know a club it is. I'm good. I bet that's more than the guy. That's underwhelming because so many people are so excited to help out because you know you're you're you're getting a professional golfer. I mean, you're getting a bag of somebody that knows what they're doing and that I caddied. That is very very rare when you're when you're a club caddy or a course caddy,

just with every day, every day play. Oh yeah, one third percent. And I feel like I always have the conversation with my volunteer caddies of thank you so much for what you're doing. I appreciate it. Uh, you're here to limit my physical expenditure for the week, so I don't have to carry my own bag, and I would love to talk to you about anything besides golf. Um. So that's my that's my take on it. UM. I've had a caddy that we had a practice round. He

did great. We got to the first hole and as a part five hit okay, drive got up to the green side bunker and two he goes, oh, don't go in, don't go in. I'm like, no, that's okay. We're you know, green side and two on a part five we can get that up and down for Bertie and then you know, we get to the next hole and the pins talked and he goes, oh, gosh, that's a that's a tough pen. I'm like, yeah, you know it is. And in my head,

I'm like, why did you say that? When we get to the third hole and he goes, okay, what are you thinking here? And I just had to say, remember, listen, remember that conversation we had about we can talk anything besides golf. He's like, oh, yeah, okay, okay, and then he totally got it, and with him, I shot my season well the next day and made the cut and you know, made top twenties. So I think that's, uh, that's very true. Just reminding them. They're so excited and

they just want to help so much. But um, you know, unless you have the same caddy every week, it's really hard to trust somebody and they don't know my game. They don't know if I hit puts hard or soft, or if I you know, aim a little bit right and push it or pull it, you know whatever. They

just don't know my game. So um, having a new caddy every week, it's, uh, it can be a little bit of a challenge, but um, I'm just appreciative to be able to talk about you know, their kids and grandkids and what they do for fun and stuff like that helps keep me loose on the course and you know, definitely saves me some energy. Yeah. Any and just no golf, I mean, just we'll talk about anything. I will. I will literally discuss all topics as long as golf is

not the main focus here in between shots. I do love the uh there. I had a good friend of mine caddying for me years ago in a State Open qualifier and I shot you know, I shot thirty nine on the front. I didn't play very well, and he's given me the oh my goodness, we've gotta make some birdies on the back, and you know it's one of those where you want to say, no, no, man. I know, like I'm well aware that that wasn't great, and I'm also well aware of what needs to happen on the back.

And I make two or three birdies and I got it back to even and we get to eighteen and hands me a driver and he says, let's not mess it up now. And you're like, oh my god, so positive, just unbelievable positive speak. You know, caddying is not an easy job, and I just I I respect the hell out of people that know how to do it well. And the professionals out there that are great at it are really really good at their job because they know how to handle a person in the situation, at the

time and the conversation. So shout out to them, Sarah, I really appreciate it. You know, you're a saint. Thank you so much for what you're doing. I hope that you and everybody are staying safe. I hope that that, you know, I mean, it continues to get better in your area. It seems like that's that's the case, at least the way the way you're you're talking about it, And like I said, I think people are going to really uh really appreciate you know, what you've done in

your decision to kind of go back to the hospital. Well, thank you so much and thanks for having me on and I'll look forward to that free push cart, push cart and water bottle. You can follow her. It's Sarah Hoffman. That's Sarah with an h Sarah Hoffman Golf. That's on Instagram. Sarah, are you not on Twitter? Is that that nobody young? No young people are on Twitter anymore? Right, Yeah, I'm not. You need to get a come on it's making a comeback.

It's I'm telling you, it's making you gotta you gotta you gotta just dive in, dive in and laugh. That's all I can ask Sarah. I appreciate the time. Yeah, thank you so much. We're gonna take a quick break and be right back. A big, big thanks to Sarah Hoppin for joining us, and a reminder you can follow her on Instagram at Sarah with an h Sarah Hoffman Golf on Instagram. Follow her and we will continue to

track her progress and her successes this year. Great story, unbelievable young lady, and I was I was pumped to have her on. If you guys get a chance to play, go out and have some fun, be smart, be safe, and we'll be back next week with more of these feel good podcast focused around the golf community and what we are doing to uh, you know, to shift maybe the focus that's normally what certain companies or people are doing, but all the shifting is to help other people and

that is the point of this. I hope you guys have a great week. We will check back in soon. The Clubhouse was Shane Bacon as a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at